Famed underground comic scribe Harvey Pekar dead at 70

Indie comics king Harvey Pekar died today in his Cleveland domicile . Pekar was famous for his long - running autobiographical series American Splendor , in which he critiqued the doldrums of life . In 2003 , American Splendor became an acclaimed movie star Paul Giamatti .

Pekar wrote American Splendor and bank on a cell of illustrator to take over art chores . The artist range from Robert Crumb ( who was portrayed by James “ Dr. Venture ” Urbaniak in the cinema ) to Gilbert Hernandez ( Love and Rockets ) to Richard Corben ( Heavy Metal ) . Pekar ’s suffered from a variety of ill — including prostate gland cancer and depression — but police are shy of his cause of death .

Here ’s a 1988 cartridge clip of one of Pekar ’s several memorable appearances on David Letterman :